


Poison

by SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor



Series: On Second Thought [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Child Leia Organa, Child Luke Skywalker, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Anakin Skywalker, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:54:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27975438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor/pseuds/SpiderMansUnfriendlyNeighbor
Summary: Anakin Skywalker has a vision about someone being poisoned at a diplomatic dinner Padme is hosting, but cannot figure out who is the target. He never considers that the target might be him.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Luke Skywalker, CT-7567 | Rex & Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Anakin Skywalker, Lux Bonteri/Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: On Second Thought [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1744039
Comments: 31
Kudos: 151





	1. The Vision

_The babble of voices filled the elaborate dining room. Senators laughed and chatted about innocuous things and argued about political issues. The world warped around him. Screams rose up._

_He couldn’t catch some of the words, but one of the words shouted was poison._

Anakin started awake. Shakiness threaded through his limbs. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. He tried to catch his breath, but a strange nervousness had overtaken him.

What was that?

It had been months since he’d had a prophetic dream, and before, they’d all been about the ever-elusive Yuuzhan-Vong (whatever they were) dealing death and destruction to the galaxy, but now? A dinner? Probably the dinner Padmé was helping sponsor that was happening…today? Tomorrow? Sometime in the day after this night.

Someone was going to be poisoned.

But who? He hadn’t been able to catch any names and hadn’t actually seen anyone collapse. How could he combat an enemy when he didn’t know who was in danger?

The most natural target was Padmé. As chancellor, she was the most prominent person in the republic, besides Bail as president, who was also one of the most likely targets. Plus, there were the many times she’d been targeted for assassination already. But any of the senators could be the target, or the senators’ spouses.

He buried his face in his hands and growled irritably.

“Ani?” Padmé murmured sleepily. She pushed herself up and placed one hand over her pregnant belly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just a bad dream.” He kissed her cheek. “Go back to sleep, angel.”

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Padmé asked.

“I’m fine.” Anakin got back under the covers and closed his eyes, pretending to drift off to sleep. If he seemed undisturbed, Padmé wouldn’t harass him about the confusing dream.

“Okay.” Padmé settled down beside him. He put his arm around her.

He’d have to meditate on it and take it to Yoda in the morning. Maybe he’d be able to make sense of it.

Anakin had been jittery all day. Yoda had not been able to shed any light on the dream. And without any idea of who would be poisoned, all he could do was alert security and hope for the best.

“It wouldn’t be the end of the universe if you wore something other than Jedi robes once in a while.” Padmé held up a fancy outfit she was trying to con him into wearing. “Don’t Jedi have formal wear?”

“No,” Anakin said stubbornly. One of the handiest things about being a Jedi was that he could wear the same comfortable clothes everywhere he went and claim it was because of his profession. He had been dodging attempts by his fashion-obsessed wife to dress up his appearance for years.

“Come on.” Padmé placed a hand on his chest and gazed up at him with those big brown eyes he could hardly ever say no to. “Just this once. For me?”

Anakin fought himself, but still couldn’t bring himself to say no to her. “All right, but just this once.” He shook his finger in her face.

Padmé laughed and held out the outfit.

Scowling, Anakin snatched his outfit from Padmé and changed into it. Even though it had been twenty-two years, he still had the automatic reaction of _I shouldn’t be wearing something this nice._

 _I am a Jedi master, not a slave,_ he reminded himself.

That didn’t help much. Jedi certainly weren’t forbidden from, and indeed, there were a few that preferred, extravagant clothing, but most, like him, preferred to wear Jedi robes whenever possible. Ahsoka was an exception, but even she rarely changed her outfit, and her version of maternity clothing was baggy Jedi robes, usually ones she’d stolen from Obi-Wan and Anakin.

He simply wasn’t comfortable going around in anything other than his Jedi robes when he wasn’t undercover. It didn’t seem right.

“Oh, come on, you act like you’re going into battle,” Padmé said. She was wearing an elaborate outfit, and looked beautiful, as usual.

Anakin frowned and attached his lightsaber to his belt. “I’d much rather be going into battle right now.” Instead, he simply needed to be on edge and ready to rush someone to a healer as fast as possible, because as Yoda had schooled him, chances were the culprit would be long gone by the time the poison took effect and the best he could do was try to save the unfortunate victim and then investigate later. “You know, you can still stay home.”

“Anakin, you know I can’t.” Thankfully, Padmé didn’t again go into the complicated political reasons she absolutely had to attend this dinner and eat food there. “I’ll be extra careful.”

Anakin sighed. Before he’d known better, he’d have tried to assert his authority, put his foot down, and order Padmé to keep herself safe, but he’d learned from painful experience that that would simply make Padmé do the exact same thing he was warning against while mad at him. Besides, he had no proof other than his own anxiety that she would be the target and no time to investigate further.

“Come on, we’re going to be late,” Padmé said.

Biting back his complaints, Anakin followed his wife out to the living room where poor Rex was holding baby Menti and waiting for babysitting instructions. He had been one of the only people available. Everyone else he knew was either attending the dinner as a guest, attending as extra security, busy with their own kids, or off-planet. Anakin was just glad he’d managed to comm Rex before Ahsoka did.

Padmé handed Rex a holorecorder. “Dinner’s in the conservator, all you have to do is pop it in the oven, the instructions are in this note, you can let them watch a holofilm before bed—”

“But nothing too violent,” Anakin added. He didn’t want a repeat of the time Echo showed the kids a holofilm version of the First Battle of Geonosis, complete with the actor playing Daddy being electrocuted by Dooku and losing his arm. Their bed had been a pile of Skywalkers for a week after that incident.

“Menti and Jinn go to bed at nine, Shmi and Ben no later than 10:30, and Luke and Leia can stay up till we get home unless it gets past midnight.”

Rex nodded. “Affirmative. Have a good time, general.”

Anakin rolled his eyes. “Come say goodbye, kids!”

Luke and Leia bolted out of their bedrooms, where they’d been told in no uncertain terms to finish the last of their homework over summer break before playing with Uncle Rex. Ben didn’t move from hanging upside down from Threepio’s arms in the kitchen, not fazed by Jinn’s high-pitched giggles as he and Artoo chased each other around the room. Shmi was bouncing on the couch with Rex’s old Clone Wars helmet on her head. Not long ago, she’d decided it was her new favorite thing, so now Rex brought it whenever he saw her. She didn’t move from the couch, just waved goodbye. Guess she wasn’t upset to see them go.

Luke wrapped his arms around Anakin. “Goodbye, Dad! Have fun!”

Anakin squeezed his son tight and gave a rueful laugh. “I’ll try.”

“Oh, don’t make it sound like it’s some form of torture.” Padmé bent down and hugged Leia. “Be good for Uncle Rex, sweetie.”

“I will. You look pretty, Mom.” Leia smiled.

“Thank you,” Padmé said. Luke ran to her and planted a kiss on her cheek. She chuckled and hugged him. “I love you, sweetheart.”

“I love you too, Mom! And you don’t look pretty, you look beautiful.” Luke squeezed tight, then bolted back to his room.

Leia looked like she was poised to run back as well. Anakin knelt down and spread his arms. “Don’t I get a hug?”

Leia crashed into him. “I love you Daddy stay safe have fun!” She planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. “You look handsome. You should wear stuff like that more often. Bye!” She bolted into her room.

Padmé laughed. “It looks like the princess agrees with me.”

Anakin sighed. “Everyone’s against me these days. Wear this, Anakin. Wear that, Anakin. Why can’t I just wear my plain old Jedi robes?”

“Because you’re not just a plain old Jedi,” Padmé said.

Anakin stood up and planted a kiss on Menti’s curly brown hair. “Let’s just go. Bye, Ben! Bye, Jinn!”

“Bye, Daddy!” Ben called.

“Oh, my, please do get down, Master Obi-Wan. Master Ani!” Threepio said.

“Hang in there, Threepio.” Anakin held out his arm to Padmé. “Let us be on our way, my lady. Have fun, Rex!”

Padmé slipped her arm through Anakin’s and they walked out the door.

Anakin tried not to look bored. The air of the dinner in the Force was very tranquil. Most politicians, even the corrupt ones, seemed to just be here to let loose and have a good time. The only tension was coming from the security, of whom Obi-Wan had volunteered to be a part.

Anakin gazed across the table and scowled at Ahsoka. Surely she was as bored and antsy as he was.

She smiled at him and put her hand on Lux’s shoulder.

Anakin sighed and shifted in his seat.

“Are you all right?” Bail Organa, who was sitting on his other side, leaned towards Anakin.

Anakin shrugged. “I had a Force vision of someone getting poisoned at this event, but I can’t sense any ill intent from anybody at this event. I couldn’t even find out who’s going to get poisoned, so I don’t have anybody to warn.”

Bail glanced uneasily at his plate of food. “I was aware there was a raised security concern today, but I wasn’t aware that was the cause. I suppose all we can do is trust in the Force that we’ll be able to catch it before it’s too late.”

Anakin nodded. He had barely touched his food and had tried not to scowl every time Padmé ate or drank something.

Padmé laughed at something one of her colleagues was saying to her, blindly reaching out to grab Anakin’s hand. She squeezed it and flashed him a quick smile. “It’ll be all right, sweetie,” she whispered.

Anakin let out a tense sigh. What was the point of having Force visions if he couldn’t do anything about them?

Padmé patted his hand and stood up. The loud talk in the room quieted.

“Two years ago, we completed necessary governmental reforms transforming our Galactic Republic into one that further serves and protects the people of this galaxy. We are here today to celebrate the new freedoms we have been enjoying for the past two years, and eradication of the influence of the Sith and of corruption from our government. We have made the Republic new for the new generations that have and will enjoy prosperity and happiness for centuries to come.” Padmé raised her glass.

The entire room stood up; that is, those of the beings in the room capable of standing did so. Anakin rose and grabbed the glass he had hitherto been too uneasy to drink out of.

“To the Republic!” Padmé said.

The rest of the room chorused, “To the Republic!”

Anakin tipped back his glass. The alcohol burned its way down his throat.

Bail raised his glass again. As the new president of the Republic, he had to give a toast as well.

A tickle scratched the back of Anakin’s throat. He coughed. The tickle grew into a pain.

He placed his glass on the table and pressed his hand against his throat. The pain grew, burning into his chest. Dizziness spun the room. He stumbled, bracing himself against the table.

Padmé grabbed his arm. “Anakin, what’s wrong?”

Anakin shook his head. Pain throbbed in his head. He pressed his hand against his forehead and tried to speak, but he couldn’t bring in enough air to talk.

Black spots floated in his vision. He blinked hard. Pain spread throughout his muscles. His legs buckled and he collapsed to the floor.

Screams filled the room. Shouts warped around him. Words slipped by him, but one he picked out was poison.

Oh.

He was the one who had been poisoned.

This was exactly what the vision had showed him.

Stang.


	2. The Fulfillment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The person responsible for poison is revealed.

Luke was curled up on the couch beside Uncle Rex, Menti in his lap. He dug his spoon into his Tibanna split, which rested on his knees so he could keep one arm around his baby sister.

Menti reached one hand out for the bowl. “Mine!”

Luke used the Force to push her hand down. “No, Menti, you already had your dessert.”

The music of the animated holofilm flared. Luke glanced up but didn’t bother to keep watching. Uncle Rex had turned on a kids’ holofilm they’d watched a lot for the little ones during dinner so they’d be able to watch something before bed. He’d promised Luke and Leia they’d be able to watch something cooler after Menti and Jinn went to bed.

Unease grew in the back of Luke’s mind. Pain grew in his chest, but not his own pain. He dropped his spoon and pressed his hand against his chest.

“Luke, what’s wrong?” Leia asked.

“Yeah, what is it, kid?” Uncle Rex asked.

The pain flared, and then his connection with Dad weakened considerably. The pain disappeared.

Luke gasped. “Something’s wrong with Dad.”

Padmé knelt at her husband’s side. She placed a hand on his cheek and a hand on his chest, one to comfort him and one to assure herself that he was still breathing. He kept shuddering and gasping in pain. “Somebody help!”

Ahsoka was by her side in an instant, her husband not far behind her. “He’s having trouble breathing. Here, I’ll help take him to the healers.”

“Welcome, dear chancellor and president of the Republic!” A male high-pitched voice boomed over the room’s internal comms. “I suppose you’ve noticed by now that Anakin Skywalker has been poisoned!”

Obi-Wan came running into the room and skidded to a stop next to Anakin. “Someone’s hacked into the system remotely. Though, I suppose you already know that.”

Anakin reached up and grabbed Obi-Wan’s hand, speaking through deep, shuddering gasps. “Help…me…”

Obi-Wan knelt by him and grasped his hand in both of his. “I will, my friend.” He turned his gaze to Padmé. “The entire system’s on lockdown. We have no way out of the building unless security manages to take back the system and override the lockdown or the person controlling it turns it off.”

Padmé nodded. No way out. Perhaps Obi-Wan and Ahsoka could cut their way out with lightsabers, but there were so many bulkheads between them and the exit that it would probably take hours, if not days, and Anakin probably didn’t have hours. She patted Anakin on the cheek and stood up. “What do you want?”

“My brother, Jsoulo Retantdusk, has been sentenced to a _lifetime_ in prison for dealing spice. A lifetime! Just for making people happy!” The man laughed. “Well, I demand my brother pardoned and released immediately or your husband, the hero of the Republic, the man that just saved your planet, Mr. President, will die in agony in about…oh, eight hours. Create the pardon disk and order my brother’s release and I will lift the lockdown and give you the name of the poison I used. Or don’t! And listen to Anakin Skywalker’s screams as he dies slowly and painfully. Your choice! You have eight hours, until his death, to decide. Good luck!” The transmission ended with a cackle.

Tension crawled in Padmé’s jaw. Her hands curled into fists. She bit back all the arguments she wanted to shout at the man. They would be useless. Even if he was listening still, he had sounded too crazed to be reasoned with. She turned to Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Lux, and Bail, hovering over Anakin. “What are we going to do?”

Anakin’s gasps of pain turned into whimpers. “Padmé.”

Padmé’s heart wrenched. She knelt beside him and put her hands on his shoulders. “I’m here.”

The hand not grasping Obi-Wan’s spasmed. Anakin reached up, his arm shaking.

Padmé took his hand and wrapped both of her hands around it. She blinked back sudden tears. She hated seeing Anakin in such pain and not being able to do a thing about it.

“Padmé,” Anakin gasped. His eyes darted around, but he didn’t seem to see her or Obi-Wan hovering above him.

“I’m here,” she repeated.

“Can we cut through all the bulkheads and get out in eight hours?” Ahsoka asked.

Obi-Wan shook his head. “Even if we went as fast as we could, we would just barely make it before Anakin…” He trailed off and started again. “We wouldn’t have enough time to get him to a hospital, identify the poison, and administer an antidote.”

“What are the chances of security taking back the system before our time runs out?” Padmé asked.

Obi-Wan sighed. “Very small. Whoever is in charge of this operation disguised several of his team, I would assume bounty hunters, as security. They overpowered those in charge of central security and locked the building down. I am afraid they are now alone with complete control of the building and several layers of bulkheads between them and the closest security guards.”

Padmé swallowed back a groan. The protocols activated had been put in place in case of a large-scale attack on the building such as a nuclear explosion. Each room was well-nigh impregnable, but that meant that not even the ventilation systems were available for attack, even if they had been large enough to move through, which most in the building weren’t.

“Could we cut our way through to the central security system in time?” Ahsoka asked.

“I’m not sure,” Obi-Wan said. “It’s possible, but somewhat unlikely.”

“Why don’t you try that?” Padmé said. “And if enough hours pass and you still haven’t managed to get close…” She stopped. How could she sacrifice the Republic for Anakin? How many more lives would be ruined if she let a spice dealer go free? But wasn’t it likely that the Jedi or someone could catch him again? It wasn’t as if the man was actually murdering people. And she had children that needed their father, one unborn. She couldn’t go home and tell Luke that she’d had the opportunity to save Anakin and had let him die. He’d be heartbroken. He would never forgive her. Could she ever forgive herself if she watched Anakin die in agony for eight hours and didn’t try to save him? Would she be able to forgive herself for letting a criminal go free to ruin more lives?

Bail put a warm hand on her arm. “We’ll consider conceding to his demands.”

Obi-Wan tried to let go of Anakin’s hand.

Anakin gripped harder and groaned. “No.”

“Anakin, he’s going to save you,” Padmé said.

“Here, you can hold my hand,” Lux said, sticking out his hand. “They’ll be back soon.”

Anakin gazed up at Obi-Wan with glazed eyes. “Promise?”

“I promise,” Obi-Wan said.

Anakin let go of Obi-Wan’s hand. Lux grabbed his trembling hand. Anakin squeezed Padmé’s hand hard and groaned loudly.

“Hurry,” Padmé urged.

“We’ll be as fast as we can,” Obi-Wan said. He and Ahsoka ran off, lightsabers ignited.

“Just hold on, Ani,” Padmé whispered. “Just hold on.”

Obi-Wan had to admit to himself he had been very optimistic when he had told Padmé they might be able to make it out of the building in eight hours. Truth was, it had been four hours, and he and Ahsoka had only made it through five bulkheads. The building was so old, some of the doors were still laced with cortosis ore, which was resistant to lightsabers.

Ahsoka let out a stream of Huttese curses. “This’ll take forever. We’ll never get there in time. Not with all this cortosis ore. It’ll take hours just to cut through this door.”

Obi-Wan sighed. “Let’s try cutting through the floor. Maybe there’s no cortosis ore there.” The new route would take them even longer to get to the central computer, but it was better than nothing.

Anakin writhing on the floor in pain popped into his mind. He banished the thought.

Anakin just had to hold on a while longer.

Anakin’s whimpers had progressed into groans and then cries. Now, five hours in, he was full-on screaming. Tremors had taken over his body, then progressed into muscle convulsions. These had died down, and he now lay weakly on the floor, head in Padmé’s lap and limp hand in hers, eyes glazed, brows flushed, and screaming.

The politicians had become very uncomfortable. When Anakin began to scream, a few had begun to cry, some fainted, and some threw up. A few despicable ones had started to complain about the noise, and one particularly greedy and very unconcerned politician made his way around the table eating off of everyone’s plates.

“Can’t we do something?” Riyo Chuchi asked.

“Just let the spice dealer out,” a lumbering senator that was suspected of taking spice said. “What harm can he really do?”

“It’s not as if he’s a murderer or a slaver,” another, more respectable senator said.

“Or a Sith!” a third piped in.

She sighed. She had long since lost the fight to keep back her tears. Lux put a hand on her shoulder. Bail put a hand on her other shoulder.

“At least put the poor man out of his misery so we don’t have to listen to his screams any longer,” a ponderous senator said.

Padmé glared at the horrid man. After all Anakin had done for the Republic, this loathsome man wanted to murder him just because his screams made him uncomfortable?

Obi-Wan and Ahsoka ran into the room. They stopped at Anakin’s feet, heaving for breath.

“Cortosis ore,” Ahsoka gasped. “All over.”

“We can’t get through,” Obi-Wan said. “Not without time we don’t have.”

“Now that you’re done playing around,” the high-pitched man said, “are you going to admit defeat and let my brother out of jail?”

Padmé swallowed and patted Anakin’s chest. “We have.”

Anakin screamed, arching his back.

Tears streamed down Padmé’s cheeks. “We’ll let your brother go.”


	3. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin recovers from the poison.

Bail recorded a pardon note. The man lifted the lockdown, and Lux took the note out of the building. Under the threat of never receiving the antidote to the poison Anakin was suffering, nobody moved while Lux left. The building locked down again until the man confirmed Lux reached the jail Jsoulo Retantdusk was in. Padmé just sat trying to comfort Anakin, glad Retantdusk was being kept in a jail on Coruscant. Finally, the man gave them the name of the poison and the lockdown lifted a second time.

Obi-Wan scooped Anakin up in his arms. “Ahsoka, go after that man and his brother.”

“On it.” Ahsoka drew her lightsabers and sped out of the room.

Padmé clung to Anakin’s hand and ran with Obi-Wan out to the closest hangar, where medical droids and a medevac speeder were waiting. Anakin was always strong, furiously protective, ready to spring into action at the mere hint of a threat against her. Yet Padmé had been held captive by a terrorist along with much of the Senate and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, and Anakin hadn’t even tried to formulate a plan of attack or tag along on Obi-Wan and Ahsoka’s mission. That alone spoke volumes as to how bad off he truly was.

Anakin was rushed to the nearest adequate medical facility, which happened to be the Jedi Temple. As soon as they entered the doors of the Healing Halls, Anakin was whisked away from Padmé and Obi-Wan. The medical droids followed the Jedi healers, giving the necessary medical information as she was left to wait for news on her husband and on the criminal the Republic had let go to save him.

Padmé collapsed in a chair and buried her face in her hands. “Did we do the right thing?”

A warm hand settled on her shoulder. “I don’t think that we had any other choice,” Obi-Wan said.

“But I put my husband over my duty to the Republic,” Padmé said. “Doesn’t that make me unfit for office or something? Isn’t that the whole reason the Jedi didn’t allow attachments for a thousand years?”

“Padmé, Bail was the one who pardoned the man. He had the backing of most of the Senate gathered in the room, not just the chancellor of the Republic. Something Anakin has taught me over the years is that sometimes the big picture isn’t as important as the choice you have in front of you right now. You can’t know the consequences of letting a spice dealer out, but you do know what happens if you refuse. A man would die. Anakin believes that even one death is too many. The spice dealer could be, and hopefully will be recaptured. But death cannot be reversed. When the choice is between duty and compassion, Anakin will always choose compassion. If in pursuing our ideals, our goals, our duty, we forget compassion, then we risk becoming monsters like Palpatine. We focus too much on the big picture sometimes, and in doing that… Well, you saw what happened to the Jedi, to the Republic, during the Clone Wars. We almost fell. You and Anakin, though, you have always striven to balance the ideals with love for the people in front of you. That is not something to be ashamed of. It’s people like you, choices like this, that keep the Republic from losing its soul.”

Padmé let out a sob.

“He’s going to be okay, Padmé,” Obi-Wan said quietly. “It’s going to be okay. You don’t have to be strong any longer.”

Padmé burst into gut-wrenching sobs. She clutched at her brother-in-law’s sleeve and buried her face in his shoulder as she cried.

A few hours later, as the sun rose over Coruscant, Padmé sat in a chair staring at Anakin’s bacta tank, numbly keeping her gritty eyes trained on the motionless figure of her unconscious husband.

Vokara Che finished checking his vitals and approached. “Master Skywalker is out of danger. He’s going to be all right.”

Padmé nodded. “That’s good,” she whispered through a painfully dry mouth.

“Padmé?” Obi-Wan said.

Padmé turned. Obi-Wan was walking into the room, pocketing a comm.

“The strike team that infiltrated the security has been apprehended and Ahsoka has Jsoulo Retantdusk and his brother in custody,” Obi-Wan said.

“Good,” Padmé whispered. Everything was going to be all right. She had been selfish and still justice had been served. Given the pardon had been given under duress, it would not be legally binding, and now, the man that had poisoned her husband would be behind bars as well.

She slowly moved and pulled a comm out of a pocket. She needed to call Rex.

Rex sighed and rubbed his eyes. The general and his wife were supposed to get home long before now. A churning in his gut told him something was wrong, but he had a responsibility to look after the kids. He couldn’t grab his blaster and go charging in to save the day.

He collapsed on the couch. Sometimes, it seemed that life was much easier during the war. Getting troopers to follow his orders was much easier than getting the Skywalker kids to bed. The younger kids had fallen asleep as he put them to bed, but Ben had put up a fuss, and it had been like pulling teeth to get Luke and Leia to bed once midnight passed. Luke had begged in tears to be allowed to stay up until he knew his father was all right. Rex hated it when the kids cried. Leia had done the most impressive whisper yelling Rex had ever seen. Her yelling was making Luke more upset, so he put his foot down and made them go to bed.

He doubted they were asleep, though. He wanted to turn the holonews on to check if something went wrong at the dinner, but if the kids were still awake, they’d come running out at the first sound of news, and cadets that young needed plenty of sleep.

A small cry sounded from the direction of the children’s bedrooms. Luke came running out, barefooted and in tears. “Uncle Rex?”

“What is it, kid?” Rex asked.

“I had a nightmare. Dad was in a lot of pain and he was dying.” Luke scrubbed at his face with balled fists, sniffing. “I know it was a Force vision. It was real, Dad is dying!”

“Aw, kid.” Rex opened his arms. “Come here.”

Luke crashed into Rex’s arms. He buried his face in his shoulder. He shook with little, hitching sobs.

Rex rubbed his back. “It’ll be all right, kid. Your dad’s a strong man. He can survive almost anything. He survived Palpatine, didn’t he?”

Luke nodded.

“Then I’m sure he can survive this.”

Luke nodded again but didn’t move. He sniffled. He darted into his parents’ bedroom and emerged a moment later, swamped in a dark cloak. His father’s cloak. Luke wrapped the cloak around him and climbed up on the couch next to Rex. Another hitching sob escaped him. He wiped his face with the long sleeves.

“What’s wrong?” Leia stumbled into the living room, her hair sticking up. She scratched her behind, hitching her nightgown up.

“Dad’s dying,” Luke said, more tears gathering in his eyes.

“No, he’s not!” Leia’s lower lip trembled, and tears clouded her big brown eyes. “That’s not true!” A big, fat tear rolled down her cheek.

Oh, no. Leia was about to cry, and when one of the twins cried, they both cried, and Rex couldn’t deal with two teary kids. “Hey, uh, how about I make the two of you hot chocolate to cheer you up?”

Luke sniffed and wiped his eyes, but Rex knew he could never resist hot chocolate. “Okay.”

Leia nodded. “He’s _not_ dying,” she said stubbornly.

Luke glared at her. Rex could tell he was about to plunge into an argument with her.

“Did I ever tell you about the time your dad tossed me off a giant wall?” he said quickly.

The twins shook their heads.

Rex stood up and made his way to the kitchen, the twins trailing behind him. “Well, it was in the Second Battle of Geonosis. We got shot down several klicks behind our drop point.” He flipped the lights on and dug through the cabinet he knew held the drink mixes. There it was, hot chocolate. “Well, because we were in the wrong place, we were blocked by this giant wall and we had to take it down.” He put the box down and pulled out three packets. “Do you young’uns want your hot chocolate made with bantha milk or water?”

“Bantha milk!” Leia said.

“Ick. I want water,” Luke said.

“All right.” Rex pulled out three mugs and filled one with bantha milk from the conservator. “So your father, Commander Tano, and I climbed up the wall and started destroying the seppies.” He filled the other mugs with water from the sink and popped all three in the reheater. “We destroyed all the clankers, including two destroyer droids.”

“Woah,” the twins said in unison.

“Two whole destroyers? Who got them?” Luke asked.

“I got one, and your father got the other.” Rex pulled the mugs out and checked the temperature with his finger. Perfect. He ripped open the packets and dumped them in. “The general and Commander Tano put explosives in holes in the wall, and then they picked me up with the Force and threw me over.” He grabbed three spoons from a drawer and stirred the drinks.

“Just threw you? Without any warning?” Leia exclaimed.

“Was it scary?” Luke asked.

“Very,” Rex said. He handed Luke and Leia their respective mugs. “All General Skywalker said was ‘Up, up, and away’ and he threw me over. They caught me at the bottom a foot away from the ground.”

Luke sipped his hot chocolate and peered up at Rex. “That wasn’t very nice,” he mumbled.

“And then the wall exploded?” Leia asked eagerly.

“Yup. It was a pretty big explosion, too,” Rex said. The little one always liked his stories that involved explosions. She reminded him of the general. He never could get out of a mission without blowing up something. He picked up his mug. “Come on, let’s go sit on the couch.”

The twins followed Rex into the living room. Luke sat down next to him and snuggled up to his side. Leia sat down on his other side. Rex sipped his hot chocolate.

Luke sniffled. Rex wrapped his arm around him. “It’ll be all right, cadet.”

His comm beeped. He pulled it out and activated it. “Rex Skywalker here, how may I help you?”

Padmé stood tiny in the comm. “Rex? I’m sorry I didn’t come back earlier. Something happened.”

“Mom?” Luke leaned forward. “What happened to Dad? Is he all right?”

“He’s _not_ dying, right, Mom?” Leia said.

“Yeah, uh, the twins had trouble sleeping. Luke sensed something was wrong with the general, so…” Rex shrugged.

Padmé’s shoulders slumped. “Anakin’s going to be all right. Somebody poisoned him to make Bail and I let his brother out of prison, and we were in lockdown in the building most of the night, but the man has been captured and Anakin is out of danger. He’s going to be all right. It might be a couple hours before I can get back, though.”

“I understand,” Rex said. “I can be here as long as you need.”

“Okay. I love you two. Anakin’s going to be all right. Don’t worry.”

“Okay,” Luke said. “I love you.”

“Love you,” Leia said.

The comm deactivated. Rex pocketed it and put his mug between his legs. He wrapped his arms around Luke and Leia. “What did I tell you two? Your father’s going to be just fine.”

Luke’s lip trembled. “He was in a lot of pain.”

“He didn’t even wanna go,” Leia said.

Tears began to gather in the eyes of both of the twins.

Rex frantically cast around for some way to distract them from their tears. “Did I ever tell you about the time I met your aunt Ahsoka?”

The first thing Anakin was truly conscious of was that he felt as if he’d been run over by a speeder. He groaned. Pain throbbed through his weak muscles. He pulled open his eyes.

Padmé was sitting next to his bed, slumped over, her head on his stomach. She sat up slowly, blinking at him sleepily.

“Hey, beautiful,” Anakin said. “How are you?”

Padmé burst into tears. “This is all my fault. I brushed off your concerns. I didn’t think you would be the one in danger, I thought it would be me! I never would have wanted you to come if I knew you would be the target. You wouldn’t even have been poisoned if I wasn’t the chancellor! I’m so sorry, Anakin, this is all my fault!”

“Hey.” Anakin blinked at her. “You’re not the one that poisoned me. And I thought you were in danger. You couldn’t have kept me away.”

“But you were poisoned!” Padmé protested. “At my dinner! I was responsible for the whole event, so I’m responsible for everything that went wrong!”

“Now you know how I felt when you were poisoned because of Rush Clovis,” Anakin said, unable to keep himself from spitting the name out. Even after talking about him with his therapist, there was some part of him that still hated the man. Despicable snake.

Padmé’s eyes widened. “I didn’t…” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Anakin. I minimized how you felt about him after that happened. I shouldn’t have brushed off your concern.” She stroked his cheek. “I just don’t know what I would do if I had to watch you die in agony.”

Anakin smiled and closed his eyes, basking in the feel of her soft, warm hand against his skin. “So does this mean no more stupid dinners?”

“Anakin!” Padmé exclaimed.

“No more fancy clothing? No more political functions? No more—”

“Anakin!” Padmé began to laugh.

Anakin grinned. He hated seeing her cry. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Padmé leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips.

Late that night, Anakin was leaving the Halls of Healing under the severe protestations of Vokara Che. Anakin just smiled at her, promised to take it easy, and sped his souped-up hoverchair, which he’d modified during his recovery from Palpatine’s torture, out of the Temple. Padmé had been too busy with the fallout of the disastrous dinner to go fetch the children from Rex, and Anakin was eager to see his children again. They had to be so worried.

Padmé had to pelt after him, leaving Obi-Wan defending himself from Vokara’s lecture for raising his padawan to be just like him. Anakin sped down the mostly abandoned halls to the hangar, where he had to wait for Padmé to help him out and get his hoverchair in the speeder.

“You could…slow down,” Padmé said, leaning on her knees, panting for breath.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Anakin asked, grinning.

He wasn’t stupid enough to ask her to let him fly and wound up falling asleep on the flight home. The excited voices of his children woke him up.

“Daddy!” Leia exclaimed. She threw herself into his lap. “I knew you weren’t dying.”

“Uh…” Anakin wrapped his arms around his oldest daughter. He didn’t remember much from the dinner, but he did distinctly remember feeling like he was dying. “Sure. I’m not planning on dying any time soon, princess.”

Luke was standing by the speeder, much more subdued, holding Menti in his arms. She reached out to him. “Daddy!”

Rex walked up behind Luke, looking run-down. “General. Glad you’re feeling better.”

Ben darted around Rex. “Here, I’ll help you get the hoverchair out.” He began to tug at the hoverchair.

Leia jumped out and tugged with him. “You’ve gotta use the controls.” She pushed a button. The hoverchair sped off into the apartment. Something crashed.

“Oh, my!” Threepio exclaimed. “Help! Master Ani! Mistress Padmé! I’ve been attacked!”

“Oops,” Leia said. She and Ben bolted inside.

Padmé climbed out and wrapped Luke and Menti in a hug. She ruffled his hair. “You all right, sweetie?”

Luke nodded.

Anakin stuck his arms out. “Help me up. I don’t want to wait for the hoverchair.”

Padmé turned. “Are you sure? You nearly passed out getting into it at the Temple earlier.”

Anakin glared at her. How could she expose him like this? It was as if she wanted him to stay in the Halls of Healing under the tyranny of Vokara Che. “I just stood up too fast.”

Rex bent and grabbed his arm. Padmé sighed and grabbed his other arm and they helped him stand. Luke scrambled back. Anakin shook as he stepped out of the speeder and walked between them into the apartment.

“Thank goodness you’re back,” Rex muttered. “I was running out of Clone Wars stories to distract the kids with. And Menti woke up crying and wouldn’t go back to bed.”

“It’s all right, Rex,” Anakin said. “You did the best you could.”

Leia and Ben pushed the hoverchair up to him. Anakin tried not to collapse in it. He didn’t want to show that he should still be in the Halls of Healing.

Padmé picked up Menti from Luke. “Try not to break anything, Anakin. I don’t know why you souped that thing up.”

“Because it’s fun.” Anakin pulled Luke in for a hug. He held him tight and pressed a kiss to his hair. “I love you. Now go to bed. We’ll talk in the morning, all right?”

“Okay.” Luke hugged him back. “I don’t like it when you’re injured and stuff.”

“I’m not too fond of it either.” Anakin pulled back and cupped his cheek with his hand. “But I’m going to be okay. Nothing can keep this Jedi down.”

Luke smiled.

Anakin’s heart settled. The heaviness clouding Luke was gone.

“Good night, Dad,” Luke said.

“Good night.” Anakin used the controls to send the hoverchair, slowly this time, into his bedroom. “Rex, can you help me?”

“Sure thing, General.” Rex walked into the bedroom and helped him into bed.

Anakin tried to stay awake to talk some more with his former captain, maybe apologize for leaving him alone with the kids so long, but as soon as Rex pulled the covers up, Anakin dropped off into sleep.

“Is he awake yet?” Leia whispered.

“No! You’ll wake him up! Go!” Luke whispered back.

Anakin dragged his eyes open. A small form scampered out of the room. The sun shone brightly onto the bed. He blinked hard in the bright light.

A curly red head popped around the open door, giggled, then darted away.

“Shmi?” Anakin said groggily.

“He’s awake!” Shmi hissed semi-quietly.

“Go, go!” Luke whispered.

Leia walked into the room, head held high. She was wearing a nice white dress instead of her Jedi robes. Ever since summer break had started, the mini fashionista hadn’t been seen in Jedi robes. According to her, _“Some of us like to be dressed fashionably!”_. “Welcome to the Skywalker Hotel, where you get the finest amenities and most attentive service this side of the Core. Let our beautiful assistant help you sit up in bed.”

Anakin smiled when Padmé entered the room. She grinned back at him, fighting laughter. She piled pillows behind him and helped him sit up.

“They came up with this all by themselves,” she whispered.

He laughed. “I’m enjoying this beautiful assistant they employ here. I love you,” he added in a whisper.

She kissed him. “Get better soon, honey.” She left the room.

“Now, let us serve you with a bountiful spread for breakfast.” Leia spread her hands to the bedroom door.

No one came in.

“I said, let us _serve_ you with a bountiful _spread_ for _breakfast!”_ Leia said loudly.

“I can get it, Threepio!” Luke said.

Luke walked in, balancing a heavy tray. Threepio hurried behind him. “Be careful, Master Luke.”

Luke put the tray on Anakin’s lap. “Here you go, Dad—I mean, honored guest, sir.”

“Thank you,” Anakin said. He stared at the food. The plate had eggs, hotcakes, and nuna bacon. It actually looked like it was pretty well made, but he wasn’t feeling hungry. In fact, he felt like throwing up or passing out. Maybe both.

Luke and Leia stared hopefully at him. Anakin swallowed and forced himself to take a bite.

“Is it good?” Leia asked.

Anakin nodded, fighting back nausea.

“Do you want to compliment the chef?” she asked.

“Sure,” Anakin said.

Leia turned around and hollered, “Ben!”

Ben shuffled into the bedroom. Flour coated his brown curls, his face, and his dark shirt. “Hi, Dad.”

Anakin laughed. “Hi, Ben. Good job on the breakfast.”

“Thanks. Can I go take a sanisteam now?”

“Go ahead.”

Ben ran off.

“Do you feel better now?” Luke asked.

“It’ll take a while for me to feel physically better, but you sure did cheer me up,” Anakin said.

“Maybe you’ll feel better with some breakfast entertainment. Guys!” Leia shouted.

Shmi walked in, one of Padmé’s large hairpieces perched on her head. She held up a tutu around her waist. Jinn followed her in, shuffling in a pair of Leia’s shoes. Shmi started wiggling and singing off-key. Jinn stomped and sang a completely different song made of confusing lyrics.

Anakin smiled and lay back on his pillows. “And Vokara Che wanted me to stay in the Halls of Healing. How could I get such wonderful entertainment stuck in there?”


End file.
